Who could be so careless with human life, so focused on their business, that they were willing to endanger people in order to keep getting them in the door? Why, a pastor of a megachurch of course!

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested on Monday and charged with unlawful assembly and violating quarantine orders during a public health emergency after holding multiple Sunday services at his enormous megachurch, the River at Tampa Bay.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office got an anonymous tip Howard-Browne was telling parishioners he would indeed still be holding his two church services despite local physical distancing guidelines which were put in place to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. He even apparently provided bus services to the church, presumably mostly for the elderly. Ugh.

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Sheriff Chad Chronister told the press during a news conference that his office warned the preacher through his lawyers he would be violating the law and endangering the members of his congregation. He could have just canceled; the church has cameras and was already set up to livestream the sermons over Facebook. He could have just told his congregation to all watch from the safety of their homes.

However, the show must go on, right?

And you can’t pass the donation plate over Skype.

Howard-Browne held not one but TWO services full of hundreds of the faithful, many standing shoulder-to-shoulder. And on Monday he turned himself in to police and was out on $500 bail just 40 minutes later.

There is a post up on his Revival Ministries website complaining, claiming COVID-19 restrictions are violating freedom of religion. Currently in his county the rule is that all gatherings must be limited to 10 people and residents are only to leave their homes for groceries, medical help, exercise, or to go to essential jobs.

Sheriff Chronister countered the pastor’s position, saying:

“Because of the reckless disregard of public safety and after repeated requests and warnings, I worked with our state attorney, Andrew Warren, to obtain a warrant for unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency rules, both of which are second degree misdemeanors. Our goal here is not to stop anyone from worshiping, but the safety and well-being of our community must always come first.“

Up next at the press conference was Warren, who jabbed the Bible back at Howard-Browne, saying:

“I’d remind the good pastor of Mark 12.31, which said there’s no more important commandment than to love thy neighbor as thyself. Loving your neighbors is protecting them, not jeopardizing their health by exposing them to this deadly virus.”

We do not begrudge most people their faith, provided they aren’t getting all Leviticus on us. However, Howard-Browne is the worst kind of faith leader, one who spreads political misinformation and conspiracy theories and calls them gospel.

He has been a guest on Alex Jones‘ InfoWars and has told his followers there are mass human sacrifices and the drinking of children’s blood in Hollywood, that Hurricane Irma was a “nothingburger” defeated by prayer after it killed 50 people, that the Christchurch Mosque shootings were a “false flag” to make conservatives look bad, and that Donald Trump is a “Rambo” who was sent here to fight the “global conspiracy to destroy America.” (He was also one of those preachers who laid hands on Trump in the Oval Office.)

And now we know he’s willing to endanger lives to what — prove a point? To play the victim as he continues to claim he’s being persecuted because this country is so anti-Christian?? Pfft.

Do YOU think people like this should face stiffer penalties for potentially causing more deaths??

[Image via Rodney Howard-Browne/YouTube/Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.]

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